Katsafaros dropped a 4-1 decision to eventual state champion Neal Malloy of
Danville, while Harlow fell by fall to Jay County’s Eric Hemmelgam.

“I thought both guys gave outstanding effort tonight,” Chesterton coach
Chris Joll said. “They don’t have any reason to hang their heads. They made
the Chesterton wrestling community very proud.”

Katsafaros gave up an early takedown, but escaped to cut the lead to 2-1.

“He had a hard time getting away,” Joll said. “I thought we did a real nice
job in the second period against the state champ. He didn’t attack us the
way we thought he would and that hurt our offense a little bit.”

Another takedown by Malloy set the final score.

“Four-time Sectional champ, two-time Regional champ and a three-time State
qualifier for Chris,” Joll said. “That’s pretty good. There aren’t very many
people up on the board in our room that has better credentials than that.
He’s one of the best we’ve had come through here.”

Harlow wrestled a great first period against Hemmelgam as neither scored in
the first two minutes.

“He had a nice first period and we pushed the kid around a little bit,” Joll
said. “We have trouble once we get someone bigger than us on top of us. That
kid clearly has wrestled before, he was third in the State last year.”

And that’s what happened as Hemmelgam got a takedown and eventually turned
Harlow and secured the fall.

“In reality, he’s had about nine months of practice with the injuries he’s
had to fight through the last couple of years,” Joll said. “I’m glad he
decided to take the step into wrestling and I think he’s proven he’s every
bit as good a wrestler as he is a football player.

“He’s a tough kid that just made CHS and his family really proud of him.”